Cancer Registration

Process of Data Collection

Regional cancer registries collect information routinely from all relevant hospitals and laboratories within their region. The following flow chart summarises the data collection process and interactions between participating units.

Data Items Collected

1. Patient demographics e.g. names, date of birth, gender, addresses, ethnicity
2. Tumour details e.g. tumour site and type, information on tumour stage (size and spread)
3. Date and methods of diagnosis and treatment modality e.g. surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy
4. Death details e.g. date of death, cause of death, place of death.

All regional cancer registries collect the Cancer Minimum Dataset (MDSCR). The WMCIU collects additional data relating to the size, extent, nodal status and metastatic spread of cancers together with treatment dates, full surgical procedure details and the identity and speciality of all clinicians involved in the diagnosis and care of the patient. The WHO international cancer topography (site) coding system of ICD10 is currently in use, having replaced the earlier version ICD9 in 1995. Regional cancer registries also use the WHO morphology coding system of ICDM that can be mapped to the SNOMED (Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine) coding scheme used within most pathology laboratories. The OPCS4 classification used in NHS hospitals is used to record surgical procedures and other therapeutic interventions.

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